


begin it here

by constantblur



Series: 2018 Writing Challenges [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Keithtober, M/M, can y'all stop with the unauthorized sap???? you're killing me, prompt: training with lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 09:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16261835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constantblur/pseuds/constantblur
Summary: “You didn’treallythink I hated you, right?” Lance blurts out, frowning so worriedly that Keith feels sympathy anxiety ping through him. “You know that it was just”—Lance waves a hand, searching for the words—“I dunno, high school. You weren’t supposed to take it seriously.”Keith and Lance spar, then talk, then redefine “hopeless crush.”





	begin it here

**Author's Note:**

> they make me get so carried away and write sappy shit i had no intention to write smh
> 
> for the keithtober day ten prompt: training with lance

Keith knows it’s completely irrational to be so happy about landing hard on his back after being flipped over someone’s shoulder, but listen, it’s a special circumstance.

Lance stands over him, hands on his hips, beaming proudly. “Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time ever,” Lance announces to the training room, which is empty save for Lance and Keith, “that’s ten out of ten rounds that go to Lance McClain.” He breaks from the composed stance he managed to maintain for a whole ten seconds and starts doing exactly what Keith had expected him to do: dancing, in typical embarrassing Lance McClain fashion. “ _Yeah_ ,” he whoops as he struts around like an aggressive flamingo.

“Congratulations,” Keith says flatly, but he’s smiling.

One final fist pump brings Lance’s celebratory dance to a close. “Thanks, man,” he says and holds out a hand for Keith.

Keith takes it and levers himself up, bringing him face-to-face with Lance’s floodlight grin. His head starts fizzing like a shaken can of soda.

“Remember when I couldn’t kick your ass even once back at the Garrison?” Lance says. “Now I can kick it _ten times out of ten_.”

Keith rolls his eyes, but the smile doesn’t leave his face. “I was going easy on you.”

“Bullshit!” Lance crows. His arm swings up, finger pointing directly between Keith’s eyes. “I’m on your level now, Kogane. You’re gonna have to keep going all out all the time if you want to keep it that way because otherwise, say hello to the new number one in the class.”

Even though he’s just been challenged, Keith can’t help the warm, floaty feeling that fills his chest. Because Lance just said they’re on the same level.

They’re equals.

And that’s why getting the breath repeatedly knocked out of him today is special.

Keith’s never put much stock in rankings—certainly not while he was still in school, and even less so now that he’s floating through space with only six other people. People who are his teammates and also, in a lot of ways, his family. Keith feels no need to compete with them. Keith’s never felt any particular drive to compete with anyone, really, or had any need to be the best.

But Lance has.

That’s been clear since the very first day they started at the Garrison, when Keith obliterated everyone else’s scores in the simulator and claimed the top spot in the rankings. Lance’s own score had been holding steady in third place until Keith had knocked him down to fourth. Commander Iverson read out their rankings, and Keith momentarily felt a flush of pride in himself—until he’d been completely caught off guard by the fiercely heated glare being leveled at him by Number Four. It flustered him: two other students had beaten Lance too, but Lance had been laughing and chatting with them after their turns in the simulator. What was it about Keith beating him that was so offensive?

Even to this day, Keith still isn’t sure. But he’s known Lance for a while now and can make a pretty good guess.

It wasn’t so much that Keith had been number one. It was the gap between his scores and everyone else’s.

The gap between him and Lance.

Lance had probably been looking at it as some insurmountable chasm, had let the numbers psych himself out and convince himself that sure, he could be good, but never _that_ good.

Keith couldn’t understand that then, and he regrets it now. There was so much he could’ve done differently if he’d known. So much could’ve been different between them.

But now they’re here, Lance and Keith, neck and neck, and Lance is smiling at him like that, and what does it matter if they had a rocky start if this is where they are now?

“Happy to share the number one spot,” Keith says, probably too softly, probably too obviously wearing his heart on his sleeve, but it’s a special circumstance.

Lance throws his arm around Keith’s shoulders and starts steering him from the training room. “Well I don’t know about you, but I’m _starving_ ,” Lance says, dramatically clutching at his stomach. “Let’s go get some lunch, partner.”

“And this has nothing to do with finding the others to tell them about your great victory, huh,” Keith deadpans.

“Well, I mean, if they just so happen to be there,“ Lance effuses with feigned innocence.

Keith snickers. “You and Hunk are solid, but beware of Pidge. She might hate you a little bit for shooting up the rankings.”

Lance comes to an abrupt stop.

His arm slides off Keith’s shoulders since Keith doesn’t stop quickly enough. As soon as he feels it fall though, Keith instantly turns towards Lance. The look on Lance’s face has Keith’s adrenaline climbing back up. “What’s wrong?” Keith says hesitantly.

“You didn’t _really_ think I hated you, right?” Lance blurts out, frowning so worriedly that Keith feels sympathy anxiety ping through him. “You know that it was just”—Lance waves a hand, searching for the words—“I dunno, high school. You weren’t supposed to take it seriously.”

Well. Keith knows that _now_ —or he thought he did, but the relief that violently washes through him exposes that incorrect assumption. “I—“ Keith starts, and stops when he realizes he didn’t know what he was going to say. _I’m glad to finally hear you say that five years later, makes the dumb crush I’ve had on you this whole time a little less dumb, I guess_. Yeah, maybe not something quite that truthful. “I guess I did take it seriously, back then.”

Lance shoves his hands in his pockets and looks at his feet. “Then I’m sorry. And I’m sorry I didn’t say this sooner. I was a stupid kid who didn’t know how to deal with—well, let’s just say I was really insecure. It’s not a good excuse for treating you how I did, I know that. But you should know—I should stop avoiding telling you—that it wasn’t anything you did. It wasn’t you. I was an ass. And I’m sorry, Keith.”

It kind of feels like Lance just hurled Keith over his shoulder again.

For all that they’ve been getting closer and friendlier with each other, Keith never thought he and Lance would ever talk like _this_. He definitely never expected to hear an apology like this. He’s not really sure what to do with it.

“Well,” he stutters out, “I was an ass too, I mean, I pretended like I didn’t even remember you when you—when Shiro—and it’s not like I wasn’t a complete brat at the Garrison, so, it’s fine.”

“No, no, no, no, no, I’m apologizing and you’re just gonna have to take it,” Lance says, shaking his head. “I mean, be honest, Keith. If I hadn’t started it, would you still have been a complete brat to me?”

_Well, honestly, I had a big dumb hopeless crush on you that I was pretty desperate to hide so, yeah, maybe_. But Keith knows that’s not really true. “Probably not,” he mutters.

Lance lets out a long, loud breath. “There you have it,” he says. “I owe you an apology. So I’m sorry.”

“All right, all right, you’ve said it,” Keith says hastily, feeling uncomfortable.

“Do you accept my apology?” Lance presses.

“Yes,” Keith says with exasperation. “Can we move on from this now? It was a long time ago, Lance.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Lance starts walking again, and Keith falls into step with him. “I just wanted to clear the air, I guess.”

Keith nudges him with his shoulder. “There was nothing to clear. We’re fine now, right?”

“ _Now_ we are,” Lance says confidently. “Protest all you want, Keith, but that was something that had to be done, and I think you know it too.”

Maybe it did need to be done. Keith can’t ignore how much lighter he feels now, how much less anxious he feels about the possibility that someday he might do or say something that will take whatever relationship he and Lance have built up now and drag it right back to their high school dynamics. He felt like he was always walking a tightrope when he was talking to Lance; less so lately, perhaps more like he’s on a wooden bridge than a tightrope. But right now, walking down the hallway beside Lance, he feels like he’s on solid ground for the first time.

“Well. Thanks,” Keith says. 

“Sure, man,” Lance says easily. He nudges his shoulder against Keith’s, and winks at him when he catches his eye. “Bickering was kinda fun when we were kids, but feels better to be all grown up and solid with each other, right?”

Keith blinks back at him. “Uh. Right.”

Lance’s arm drapes around Keith’s shoulders again. “See, this? Feels good. Feels organic.”

_What is happening_. “Uh huh.”

“Feels right, being right up there with you,” Lance continues.

“Lance,” Keith says as expressionlessly as possible, “I think you’ve let being number one get to your head.”

Lance beams at Keith in a way that makes Keith brace for danger. “That’s me, numero uno,” he says. “And on a scale of one to ten, you’re a nine.”

Keith frowns because first of all, mixed metaphors are painful, and secondly, didn’t they _just_ get past all this competitive nonsense? “Lance, what—“

“Because I’m the one you need,” Lance says.

Keith has absolutely no idea how he manages to stay on his feet and not promptly faceplant on the floor.

Instead, he somehow manages to continue walking alongside Lance, who’s humming cheerfully to himself like nothing happened but _what just happened_.

“You know, I think—I think I need to take a shower,” Keith says. He marvels at just how high his voice is able to go.

Lance snickers. “You go do that,” he says. “See you later, samurai.”

And, humming cheerfully again, Lance saunters off down the hall and rounds the corner. Keith can’t be sure because he still hasn’t come fully back into his body yet, but he thinks Lance throws him another wink before disappearing out of sight.

It’s in a wondering, dumbstruck daze that Keith thinks, for the first time: maybe his big dumb crush isn’t so hopeless after all.

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/constantblur_)


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